Construction of electrochemiluminescence sensing platform with in situ generated coreactant strategy for sensitive detection of prostate specific antigen

A sandwich-type ECL platform was fabricated for sensitive detection of prostate specific antigen (PSA) by using AuNPs decorated MoS2 (MoS2-AuNPs) as electrode material and SiO2 nanoparticles labeled with secondary antibody (Ab2) and glucose oxidase (Ab2-SiO2-GOD) as signal probes. Owing to the excellent conductivity and large surface area of MoS2-AuNPs, the fast electron transfer process and the immobilization of numerous biomolecules can be achieved. The GOD labeled signal probes can realize the in situ generation of H2O2 as coreactant to amplify the ECL intensity of luminol. The developed immunosensor displayed a wide linear range of 0.5 pg mL−1–10.0 ng mL−1 and low detection limit of 0.20 pg mL−1 for PSA detection. The immunosensor also has been successfully applied for the analysis of PSA in human serum samples. Furthermore, the proposed strategy shows great application prospects for determination of other biomarkers in biological samples. •In situ generated coreactant strategy was used in luminol-H2O2 ECL system.•MoS2-AuNPs were used to improve the performance of the ECL immunosensor.•The ECL signal could be amplified with the in situ generated coreactant strategy.•The sensor exhibits high sensitivity and wide linear range.